<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Out of the Darkness by MorpheusNightmares</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23804821">Out of the Darkness</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/MorpheusNightmares/pseuds/MorpheusNightmares'>MorpheusNightmares</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, RIORDAN Rick - Works, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>M/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 11:21:59</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,298</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23804821</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/MorpheusNightmares/pseuds/MorpheusNightmares</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It's been a year and a half since the whole battle agains miss mud face. Nico is still having nightmares from the horrors he experienced, and Will still needs to deal with everything he evoided so far.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Nico di Angelo &amp; Will Solace, Nico di Angelo/Will Solace</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Out of the Darkness</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I am looking for a beta, so at the meantime it is as good as I could get it, while english being my third language.<br/>Hope you like it, and pls review!</p>
    </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hello!<br/>Well, I wrote this originally about 6 yrs ago, and in a different language. So after a bit of translation and rewriting, here is the first part of six.<br/>I still havn't figured out how to find a beta, so if anyone wishes to help I would be greatful.<br/>I hope you like it, and welcome reviews in open arms!<br/>Enjoy</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Moving the head from side to side doesn’t help. Opening and closing his eyes doesn’t help either. Everything is black and colorless. The air gets stuck in his throat and the darkness crawls over his body, catching on his clothes, pulling his hair, gripping tightly, suffocating, torturing, and then the panic takes its place.</p><p>Despite the denial to this feeling, despite the hope to escape out of its reach, he fails. The deep panic, the terror, crawls inside, bone deep and shatters him. His eyes are open wide, but it makes no difference even if he closes them. Everything is black, no light at all to help him figure out where he is. But he knows. He is in Tartarus.</p><p>Suddenly the deafening silence is no more. There are footsteps behind him. The sounds of shoes on the earth. There are breaths of something alive behind him. Turning around, he still sees nothing. There is nothing there. But there is, and it makes sounds.</p><p>A hand closes on his. He jumps back in terror, falls to the ground and keeps scrambling back. Then there is something there, something hard and… alive. It catches him again. There are more hands. They grab everything – hands, legs.</p><p>He screams.</p><p>“Nico!” a loud voice comes through. “Wake up!” it is familiar. “Please, Nico.” Quieter now.</p><p>Nico is in his bed. There is someone else there with him. It’s Will. He is in his bed in his cabin, and he is with will, and it is just a night at camp, and it was just a dream.</p><p>“Will,” He is still breathless as will pulls him into a tight hug. Not too tight that it constricts his breathing, but tight enough that he feels everything. His hands are free, and he can turn and run. He always can. But he won’t.</p><p>Starting to catch his breath, Nico pulls a curtain aside, and the full moon welcomes him with it’s shine. It’s still not a lot of light, but it’s enough for it to become ‘not black’ around him.</p><p>It’s a bit dark. Which he likes. But not black. No, blackness he hates. And it’s fine.</p><p>Will releases him. Not completely – there’s a hand on his arm, and their foreheads touch – so Nico doesn’t feel alone. Nico is grateful.</p><p>“I’m alright.” He mumbles. “Sorry I woke you up.”</p><p>Will doesn’t answer, at least not immediately. There is this look in his eyes, that radiates warmth, and care, and everything that is good. Will just pulls him into another hug. This time Nico puts his head on Will’s chest, listening to the steady beating of his heart.</p><p>“Tartarus again?” guessed Will. Nico hummed in response. It’s not always Tartarus, of course there are other nightmares. And there are some quite nights, though they are fewer than Nico would have liked.</p><p>The nights that it was Tartarus, were the worst. They both knew that Nico can’t go back to sleep. Not without going back to the nightmare.</p><p>“Come on, let’s go outside.”</p><p>In a few moments, they are walking out the door, a blanket in one of Will’s hands, and Nico in the other. The ground is covered in white snow, and the color is so striking in its opposite color to the blackness, even in the middle of the night that Nico feels some of the tension leave him.</p><p>The walk is peaceful, and Nico finds comfort in the closeness to Will. His thought wander to the last time there was snow at camp.</p><p>It was a year ago, when their relationship was still new, and they just shared their first kiss a few weeks before. The snowfall surprised everyone, and after a day full of fun and games, Nico and Will found themselves near the lake at the sunset.</p><p>It was nothing special, just some talk, a thermos with coffee, and cuddles on the snow with no one else around. It was amazing.</p><p>Now, Nico realizes that Will is probably thinking about the same evening as they are once again on the path to that spot near the lake. It is not sunset, but it is near sunrise, which is somehow even better.</p><p>As they arrive, Will spreads the blanket over his shoulders and sits down, back against a tree. He looks at Nico with invitation it his eyes and a hint of a smile. Nico feels warm inside and sits down between Will’s legs, back to his boyfriend’s chest.</p><p>The sounds of the water soften the voices of the world awakening around them. The birds start singing, the trees seem to stretch.</p><p>There is not much to say, and there is no need to say anything. Then Will starts to sing. His voice is quiet, very quiet, gentle, as the sounds fill Nico’s ears and mind and heart.</p><p>The melody is sad. Almost as if Will doesn’t know the words to express his pain and sorrow. Nico holds on a little tighter on Will’s hands, wraps them around his middle.</p><p>Then the melody changes. It becomes something more, something almost flirty. Nico finds himself smiling, almost laughing. He moves to the rhythm, small movements that Will must feel as his hand retreat and then grasp his hips.</p><p>Finally, Will laughs. It’s not a bad laugh, but a happy one. The sun starts to rise, and the ground shins in the light in white.</p><p>Nico turns to look at Will. His eyes twinkle in blue, his hair tousled from sleep and there are still marks on his cheek from the sheets. He is beautiful. Nico leans in and kisses him, slow and emotional that turns to slow and sensual.</p><p>Will breaks the kiss, breathing hard, and kisses Nico’s forehead. “How do you feel?”</p><p>“You mean besides wanting you in bed?” Nico jokes. A bad decision, as bed only reminds him now of the nightmare. Will just pets his hair and waits. “I don’t know. Tiered. I want a break from the horrors.”</p><p>A few more moments of quiet pass. “Also, not alone…?” he feels the heat rises to his cheeks.</p><p>Will moves his hands to hug Nico around the shoulders. “Why do you think you dreamt it?” Nico knows what Will wants to ask – why now, after three quiet weeks?</p><p>“I don’t know.” Nico whispered. Then took a deep breath. “No, I do know.”</p><p>Quiet again.</p><p>Nico’s mind loud, but also quiet all at once. He doesn’t want to admit it, to say it out loud, to say it to Will. But it is Will, and he trusts him, and if Will asked, maybe its time to say it?</p><p>“It was my fault that I got captured. And I was weak and couldn’t get myself out. I am still weak and even now I don’t think I could.” Nico whispered.</p><p>“Is that what you really think?” Will asked in a hushed tone, kissing gently his cheek.</p><p>Nico sighed. “I know it’s not true. It still doesn’t make it hurt any less.”</p><p>“Do you think Percy making it out of there alive making you feel less?” Will’s hands travel on his shoulders, in his hair, on his belly and on his legs. Anywhere they can reach. The touch preventing him from diving too deep into his memories, into the past and-the-pain-and-the-fear.</p><p>“Maybe.” Nico doesn’t want to compare himself to Percy, but he also can’t stop.</p><p>“Well, do you think the two of us could make it out of there alive?”</p><p>This one question makes Nico’s head spin. Percy wasn’t alone. Somewhere along the long months since, he forgot that fact. He knew that Annabeth was there, but when he thought about himself getting captured, it was Percy alone in his mind that succeeded.</p><p>Unlike a year and a half ago, Nico was not alone now.</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>